UBS U.S. clients with secret Swiss accounts to seek amnesty on tax evasion

Source: RTT News

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that U.S. cross-border investors of Swiss financial services firm UBS AG (UBS: News ) are seeking amnesty for evading income tax. The bank had helped about 20,000 U.S. customers evade income tax by concealing around $20 billion in assets from the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS.

Reports suggest that UBS's cross-border investors are hiring tax lawyers and pursuing amnesty through an IRS voluntary disclosure program, fearing that the Swiss government would assist in the probe. Under the program, U.S. taxpayers can voluntarily acknowledge tax evasion and agree to pay taxes and penalties, in order to avoid criminal prosecution.

UBS stated on July 17 that it will cease providing cross-border private banking services to US-domiciled clients through its non-US regulated units. The company also said that it is fully cooperating with the investigation and working with all relevant authorities for a satisfactory resolution of the matter.

Meanwhile, the voluntary disclosure move is seen as a boon to IRS, as it could be impossible for the weakly staffed IRS to go after the nearly 20,000 customers. The move close on heels of the Swiss government having accelerated talks aimed at accessing data on the offshore accounts of U.S. taxpayers.

And, if they were doing this to avoid paying taxes they should have paid, I hope they don't get amnesty. I hope their names appear in public where we can all see them, and I hope they get substantial fines and jail time if the amounts are large.

I'm 63 years old, and since I was 16 years old, I have filed and paid every penny of tax I owed. I have absolutely zero tolerance for those who avoid their responsibilities.

The government could probably do with the money rather than getting the money (maybe) eventually after spending millions in court costs and letting most of these a-holes slip through their fingers because they don't have sufficient IRS resources to go after them all.

I really want to see a detailed list of the names. Kind of like the lists of johns that get put out every so often. I want to know who's been cheating on their taxes while I paid 100% of mine each year.

I want to see who's not paying his/her way. I want to pillory them in public. I'd like to publicize those names in their local communities and see their names in the newspaper, along with a "no comment" from then, with the total that they avoided printed, along with the penalty they had to pay.

I thought Republicans were 100% four square against that. Oh, we're talking about money, not people? All is forgiven! As the good book says, no one can serve two masters, and the Republicans don't even bother to claim that they're serving the United States or its people (just as well, because no one should believe them); they're entire raison d'etre is slavish devotion to money, money, beautiful money.

Hundreds of super-rich American tax cheats have, in effect, turned themselves in to the IRS after a bank computer technician in the tiny European country of Liechtenstein came forward with the names of US citizens who had set up secret accounts there, according to Washington lawyers investigating the scheme.

The bank clerk, Heinrich Kieber, has been branded a thief by the government of Liechtenstein for violating the country's bank secrecy laws.

He is now in hiding but scheduled to testify to the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Thursday via a video statement from a secret location, according to Congressional investigators.

They just audited a friend of mine last year who barely makes $16k a year, grows her own food and schools her own children because apparently she can't possibly live on $16k a year. I guess it's possible when you're healthy, don't eat meat and don't own a car.

that this is an international problem is discussed by witness, Jack Blum and Senator Kerry. (starting at about 1 hr 15 minutes) The hearing was on the problems with the Cayman Islands. This whole hearing is very interesting - with all the Senators speaking of the vast revenues lost because of this

If there are public officials on the list, this should be considered an ethics violation - as well as a crime.

If the Swiss government is indeed cooperating, I don't think they should give amnesty. These 20,000 customers KNEW they were breaking the law. Just because they are wealthy, well dressed, "pillars of their community" types doesn't mean they should get a break - if anything, there should be less sympathy for them than for poorer thieves. They didn't really even NEED the money saved by defrauding the government.

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